A year ago I purchased a pair of Vibram Five Finger shoes/slipper/glove things, http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/ .  Over the year I have tried to slowly train my feet and calves to run without cushioning and support.  Last week I ran a total 22 miles in the five finger shoes.

Today I was invited to run trails with a friend.  However, the trails were covered in loose gravel.  Ouch.  My feet are tender.  However, I’m hoping my feet will toughen to the point where gravel won’t bother me.

Overall, I really enjoy the Vibram Five Finger shoes.  They cause me to run the way my body was designed to run.  Shoes allow me to lengthen my stride to land on my heals.  However, this causes my knees and quad leg muscles to absorb the impact.  Each landing causes my legs to absorb more impact that should be partially absorbed by the structure of my feet.  Regular running shoes restrict the feet from doing their job.  Therefore, we run with an un-natural gate.  Running barefoot of with minimalistic shoes force us to run with a gate for which we were designed.  This natural gate prevents injury and causes me to run more efficiently.

My goal this Summer is to only run with the Vibram Five Finger shoes.  So far, I’m off to a good start.

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Oswego Election 2011

This home-schooled student and wrestler made a classy wrestling move.  Great job Joel!

Iowa wrestler defaults rather than face girl – chicagotribune.com.

The United States is in trouble.  All of us, not just the government.  A huge deficit is a symptom of selfishness.  Our nation is going into foreclosure because no one wants to make sacrifices.  Politians don’t want to make the hard choices because it might end their career in politics.  The people don’t want their programs cut nor do they want to pay more taxes.  “Let someone else make the sacrifice, not me.” , they say.

“Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country” – President John F. Kennedy

The attitude of which JFK is speaking is what made this country great. However, fewer and fewer people have this attitude.   People need strive to become assets to our country and not burdens, parasites.  This is how our country is going to stay a great nation.

So call your elected officials and tell them, cut the budget and raise our taxes till it hurts.  Because this is how we are going to stop our self destructive behavior. We want a strong United States for our children to enjoy and I’m willing to make sacrifices for that to happen.